1. Field
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to control devices for hydraulic equipment and, more particularly, to systems and methods for intelligently gating control functions of hydraulic equipment so that the same physical controller can be used to control different hydraulic equipment without physical gates.
2. Related Art
Traditionally, hydraulic equipment has been operated by dedicated controls, with one control axis for each hydraulic function. For example, when a boom can be raised or lowered and also rotated, there is one control for raising and lowering, and one control for rotating. For efficiency or joint operation, controls are sometimes combined into two-axis joysticks, so that moving the joystick on the y-axis raises or lowers the boom, and moving the joystick on the x-axis rotates the boom.
For some hydraulic equipment, it is desirable to operate the two control functions at the same time (for example, to simultaneously rotate and raise the boom). In other examples, however, the control functions should not operate simultaneously. For example, there is not a reason to operate the winch and the digger at the same time so simultaneous activation is likely unintentional. To enforce these exclusions, physical gates can be used to restrict the movement of the joystick so that it can move in either the x-axis direction or the y-axis direction, but not both simultaneously.
However, controls that are mechanically gated in this fashion cannot be reused to control functions that require joint operation. For example, if a hydraulic equipment vehicle has a number of functions, then separate joysticks are required for each function, gated or not as the particular function requires. This prevents joysticks from being reconfigured to control different hydraulic equipment as needed. As such, there is a need for a way to dynamically and intelligently gate control inputs so that controls can be reused for different functions while being gated appropriately for current functions.